Italian Sausage, Tomato, and Pesto Soup

Italian Sausage, Tomato, and Pesto Soup can be made with macaroni or frozen cauliflower rice, and this is an easy soup the whole family will enjoy! And I didn’t use much macaroni, so even if you choose that option this soup isn’t very high in carbs.

How’s everyone doing with the voluntary home confinement? I’m staying home to be safe and keeping myself fed and relatively entertained, but definitely struggling with a lack of motivation to think of new recipes for the blog! I can’t seem to find the desire to work on new recipes when I know people may not have the ingredients and probably won’t want to go out to the store to get them.

But what I have been having fun doing is looking through the huge archives of my blog to find a recipe I have the ingredients for, and then updating it into an improved version, often with lower carbs or at least a lower carb option. And that’s what I did with this recipe for Italian Sausage, Tomato, and Pesto Soup!

The original recipe was one I came up with years ago for a family party, and it had twice as much macaroni as the newly updated recipe you see here. If you don’t want even the smaller amount of macaroni I used or want a soup that’s gluten-free, you can make this tasty soup with cauliflower rice. And I knew most people wouldn’t have fresh basil on hand right now so I switched that out for basil pesto, which was absolutely delicious in this soup!

I shared some of the soup with my sister Pam and her husband Kelly one day when we went for a walk (staying appropriately at a distance from each other) and they both gave it a thumbs up! And I’ve definitely noticed that comforting dishes like soup, stew, and casseroles are what many people are cooking these days! So for everyone who needs comfort food and is still enjoying soup, I hope you’ll give this improved recipe a try! And here’s the link to the original version, just in case anyone was a fan.

How to Make Italian Sausage, Tomato, and Pesto Soup:

(Scroll down for complete recipe including nutritional information.)

Combine chicken stock, dried basil, ground fennel, and petite dice tomatoes with juice in a soup pot and let the mixture simmer over low heat while you cook the sausage.

Heat olive oil in heavy frying pan, then squeeze turkey (or pork) Italian sausage out of the links and cook until the sausage is nicely browned; breaking apart with a metal turner.

Add the sausage to the simmering soup pot,

Chop onion and mince garlic. Then add a tiny bit more olive oil to the pan and cook onion about 3-4 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook 1-2 minutes more.

Add the onion and garlic to soup pot.

Deglaze the frying pan with about 1 cup of soup from the pot and scrape off browned bits from the pan, then add that back into the soup

Let this simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes.

Then add 1/2 cup dry macaroni (or 10 oz. frozen cauliflower rice) to the soup pot and simmer on low for about 15-20 minutes more, or until macaroni or rice is soft.

Nutritional information is calculated with macaroni since that's what is in the photos, but you can use macaroni, or substitute with one 10 oz. package frozen cauliflower rice. Macaroni will be about 5 carbs per serving; cauliflower rice will be 1.5 carbs per serving.

Recipe created by Kalyn for a family party many years ago and updated with lower-carb options in April 2020.

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
If made with approved macaroni, this Italian Sausage, Tomato, and Macaroni Soup with Basil would be approved for phase 2 or 3 of the South Beach Diet. Soup with macaroni would probably be too high in carbs for a low-carb diet, but if you want a lower-carb soup with these flavors, use the option for cauliflower rice instead of macaroni. (Macaroni adds about 5 carbs per serving, cauliflower rice is about 1.5 carbs per serving.)

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
The original version of this soup was posted December 2010! The recipe was updated to a more carb-friendly soup, including the option to replace the macaroni with cauliflower rice April 2020.

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Oh, I made a vegetarian version of this soup with fake meat, and it was sooo good and warming in this cold weather that I have been having recently. I love pasta soups, and this one made a huge batch. Great, healthy, warming, and not to hard to make either.The new layout for this blog is nice, too!

Tried it with a twist. I used Andouille sausage rather than Italian, and substituted some okra and Cajun spices for the basil. I also used whole wheat pasta to keep my blood sugar down.Turned out quite well for those of us who like spicy soups.

I made your soup recipe this evening and it was a big hit! Fennel is not one of the spices I use, so this soup gave me a new taste adventure.

I follow your blog regularly and have tried several recipes which are now in my regular rotation.

I also appreciate the comment from LibbyD about using meat with her own spices rather than the sausage. As I was making the soup, I wondered if it would be too bland (i.e., not salty enough), but found that the salt from the sausage was more than enough.

Thank you for all the great recipes you create and share from other bloggers. It's much appreciated here in mid-Michigan.